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Posted by Dugie on August 31, 2005, 2:09 pm
Hi,
A contractor who does a lot of work in our townhouse area has a rep for slow
but very good work, and his workers are supervised well. He's replaced all
our windows with Farley vinyls (double hung, casement and one large picture
window), and finished the job yesterday, August 30. The old frames were torn
out completely, replaced with new wood frames.
My concerns:
- The interior pine finish trim around the windows meet with drywall which
is not straight. There are gaps of up to 1/4" or more in places, between the
back of the trim and the walls, even though the workman did mudding.
- The sills aren't solid, and move when I press fairly lightly on them.
There is little support below the sills.
The workman was going to leave it as is, so the boss came by today to check.
He said he'd fill the space with DAP compound, but wouldn't use mud.
I don't want to be unreasonable, and not knowing this trade is no help. I
live in Nova Scotia, Canada.
What are the industry standards for these things? Many thanks in advance.
Dugie
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Posted by Ken on August 31, 2005, 7:36 am
Dugie wrote:
show/hide quoted text
> Hi,
> A contractor who does a lot of work in our townhouse area has a rep for slow
> but very good work, and his workers are supervised well. He's replaced all
> our windows with Farley vinyls (double hung, casement and one large picture
> window), and finished the job yesterday, August 30. The old frames were torn
> out completely, replaced with new wood frames.
> My concerns:
> - The interior pine finish trim around the windows meet with drywall which
> is not straight. There are gaps of up to 1/4" or more in places, between the
> back of the trim and the walls, even though the workman did mudding.
> - The sills aren't solid, and move when I press fairly lightly on them.
> There is little support below the sills.
> The workman was going to leave it as is, so the boss came by today to check.
> He said he'd fill the space with DAP compound, but wouldn't use mud.
> I don't want to be unreasonable, and not knowing this trade is no help. I
> live in Nova Scotia, Canada.
> What are the industry standards for these things? Many thanks in advance.
> Dugie
Ideally, the window jamb should be flush or slightly proud of the
interior wall finish so that when the window casings are installed,
there is no gap between the casing and the wall. The window jamb width
needs to be equal to the total wall thickness (stud + exterior
sheathing + interior drywall) for this to work out right. If the
windows jambs are not the right width, there is probably little that
can be done about that problem, since you most likely can't trim a
vinyl jamb. (It's easy to do this with older wood windows.)
If that's the case, one thing that can be done is to cut a rabbet in
the back of the window casing where it meets the jamb to account for
the difference in how far the jamb protrutes from the interior wall
surface. Of course, this only works if the difference is small enough
and the casing is thick enough, which sounds like it is not the
situation in your case. And in any case, this is something that a
typical replacement window installer cannot afford to spend time on,
unless you are paying a premium price for excellent work (Our neighbors
paid ~$1K per window for replacement windows in an old house that
required extensive amounts of this sort of attention to detail.)
I can't see the windows from here, but my guess is that you are stuck
with the gap and just need to fill it. Caulk is your friend in this
case, and is fairly common thing to do to fill smallish gaps, although
1/4" sounds like a greater than average gap to me. Don't fill the gap
with drywall mud, that will eventually crack and show the seam. That
is unless they are willing to put on a 1/4" thickness or whatever is
required, and then feather it out across the wall to bring up the whole
wall surface flush with the back of the casing. (And which you will
obviously need to repaint a large area.)
The "stool" is the flat horizontal piece at the bottom on the inside,
which is commonly and incorrectly called the sill, which is what I
assume you are talking about. The stool should be nailed such that it
is solid, so I would complain if it moves when you press on it. The
trim piece that goes flat against the wall underneath the stool is
called an apron, which in addition to provinding a finished look to the
window, also provides some amount of support for the stool. Was this
installed?
Call back your installer, and use words like stool and apron, that will
make him think you know what you are talking about. Perhaps that will
help convice him that he has a bit more work to do.
Ken
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Posted by jstp on August 31, 2005, 10:43 am
- DAP caulking is fine to fill the gaps. Better than mudding, since it won't
crack as much.
- Sills should get better support. I had the same problem and ended up
adding the additional support myself by piling two layers of plywood in the
cavity to get the right thickness (about 3/8" in my case). I could do this
because the bottom trim wasn't on yet, since I was doing the trimming
myself. I don't think it's unreasonable to ask the installer to add support
to the sills.
show/hide quoted text
> Hi,
> A contractor who does a lot of work in our townhouse area has a rep for
slow
show/hide quoted text
> but very good work, and his workers are supervised well. He's replaced all
> our windows with Farley vinyls (double hung, casement and one large
picture
show/hide quoted text
> window), and finished the job yesterday, August 30. The old frames were
torn
show/hide quoted text
> out completely, replaced with new wood frames.
> My concerns:
> - The interior pine finish trim around the windows meet with drywall which
> is not straight. There are gaps of up to 1/4" or more in places, between
the
show/hide quoted text
> back of the trim and the walls, even though the workman did mudding.
> - The sills aren't solid, and move when I press fairly lightly on them.
> There is little support below the sills.
> The workman was going to leave it as is, so the boss came by today to
check.
show/hide quoted text
> He said he'd fill the space with DAP compound, but wouldn't use mud.
> I don't want to be unreasonable, and not knowing this trade is no help. I
> live in Nova Scotia, Canada.
> What are the industry standards for these things? Many thanks in advance.
> Dugie
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Posted by Duane Bozarth on August 31, 2005, 10:10 am
jstp wrote:
show/hide quoted text
>
....
show/hide quoted text
> - Sills should get better support. I had the same problem and ended up
> adding the additional support myself by piling two layers of plywood in the
> cavity to get the right thickness (about 3/8" in my case). I could do this
> because the bottom trim wasn't on yet, since I was doing the trimming
> myself. I don't think it's unreasonable to ask the installer to add support
> to the sills.
....
As Ken noted, that's the "apron", not the "sill"....
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Posted by Jim Tiberio on August 31, 2005, 12:31 pm
show/hide quoted text
> Hi,
> A contractor who does a lot of work in our townhouse area has a rep for
slow
show/hide quoted text
> but very good work, and his workers are supervised well. He's replaced all
> our windows with Farley vinyls (double hung, casement and one large
picture
show/hide quoted text
> window), and finished the job yesterday, August 30. The old frames were
torn
show/hide quoted text
> out completely, replaced with new wood frames.
> My concerns:
> - The interior pine finish trim around the windows meet with drywall which
> is not straight. There are gaps of up to 1/4" or more in places, between
the
show/hide quoted text
> back of the trim and the walls, even though the workman did mudding.
> - The sills aren't solid, and move when I press fairly lightly on them.
> There is little support below the sills.
> The workman was going to leave it as is, so the boss came by today to
check.
show/hide quoted text
> He said he'd fill the space with DAP compound, but wouldn't use mud.
> I don't want to be unreasonable, and not knowing this trade is no help. I
> live in Nova Scotia, Canada.
> What are the industry standards for these things? Many thanks in advance.
No way should you allow the stool (not sill) to be left as is.
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> A contractor who does a lot of work in our townhouse area has a rep for slow
> but very good work, and his workers are supervised well. He's replaced all
> our windows with Farley vinyls (double hung, casement and one large picture
> window), and finished the job yesterday, August 30. The old frames were torn
> out completely, replaced with new wood frames.
> My concerns:
> - The interior pine finish trim around the windows meet with drywall which
> is not straight. There are gaps of up to 1/4" or more in places, between the
> back of the trim and the walls, even though the workman did mudding.
> - The sills aren't solid, and move when I press fairly lightly on them.
> There is little support below the sills.
> The workman was going to leave it as is, so the boss came by today to check.
> He said he'd fill the space with DAP compound, but wouldn't use mud.
> I don't want to be unreasonable, and not knowing this trade is no help. I
> live in Nova Scotia, Canada.
> What are the industry standards for these things? Many thanks in advance.
> Dugie